The Karnataka government’s proposed Rohith Bill, aimed at preventing caste-based discrimination in universities and colleges, has entered its final drafting stage, Higher Education Minister MC Sudhakar revealed.
The Minister said that the Bill’s progress has become particularly significant after the Supreme Court stayed the University Grants Commission’s (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) regulations. The new framework against caste-based discrimination was challenged by petitioners who claimed that it discriminated against students from the general category, and raised concerns over how the UGC defined caste-based discrimination.
According to Kannada daily Prajavani, Minister Sudhakar said that the government intends to protect the interests of all student communities. “Along with preventing caste-based discrimination, protecting the interests of general category students is also a priority,” he said.
The state government had initially planned to introduce the Rohith Act during the Belagavi legislature session in December 2025. The Bill seeks to ensure equal opportunities and educational rights for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), and religious minorities in universities under the Higher Education Department. The draft has since been revised based on expert recommendations.
The proposed legislation, formally titled ‘Karnataka Rohith Vemula (Prevention of Exclusion or Injustice) (Right to Education and Dignity) Bill, 2025’, was drafted with inputs from civil society members in Bengaluru. The Congress government moved to enact the Bill after senior party leader Rahul Gandhi extended support for a law to criminalise caste-based discrimination in educational institutions.
The Bill is named after PhD scholar Rohith Vemula, whose death by suicide on January 17, 2016, sparked nationwide outrage. Rohith faced caste-based ostracisation on campus, with activists and student groups terming his death as an “institutional murder.” In his suicide note, remembered widely for its powerful words, Rohith wrote, “My birth is my fatal accident.” He spoke of star dust and Carl Sagan, and wrote, “The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility.”
